Thomas Merton and Confucian Rites: The Fig Leaf for the Paradise Condition

John Wu, Jr

The true Confucian never goes through ritualistic movements merely to fulfil personal and social duties: rather, personal fulfillment is the perfect exchange of love and compassion, of that deep commiserate feeling of identity with the other, to wit, an exchange of humanheartedness (jen) and good will at the sacred level of being.